Regaining control of my yard

The turkeys have eaten everything in my yard. Gobs of medicinal and culinary herbs painstakingly gathered through my travels and inquiries over many years. My family garden where I planted all the favorite flowers of those loved ones both here and gone on. It's time to regain my yard, and control of my sanity. The turkeys will be gone and eaten up this week, as long as the heat holds off so I can butcher them in relative comfort. I will have to can most of them, since the freezer space is at a premium.

While working on my yard and landscaping, I will be building a chicken aviary with the help of my friend, a woodworker. Thank you to his wife for loaning him out to me yet again. (Good friends are like good books, you keep going back to them. This same friend will come over this weekend to help me change my brakes since my car is desperately in need of stopping power and I haven't maintained my own vehicle for 10 years or more.) Remember, ladies, every woman should know how to change a tire, and check their oil. Real women know how to change the oil and reset calipers.

Once the poultry is gone and transformed into eatable form, I will attempt to regain my yard. It's hard work and I feel for those single women out there, I know how they feel - to work a sixty hour week, come home to make dinner, clean up, drive the kids around, play games with them, help with the homework, take care of the pets, and then stay up past everyone else's bedtime to clean and try to get ahead on tomorrow's meal preparation. I will miss my stepkids desperately this summer, but it's good for them to get away right now to get away from their pain, and it will be good for me to get caught up on the deferred maintenance around here.

Stay tuned everyone. I will be taking on chores this summer such as putting on a new roof (yes, all by my lonesome... anyone want to volunteer to help me?), powerwashing the house and deck, building a new deck, building an aviary, planting a new lawn (Lord, please help this one stick), and renewing and reclaiming my gardens. Not having to worry about cooking and picking up after anyone (well, other than my other two teenagers, DSS20 and husband, of course) and shopping for food will do wonders for my to do list.